Breaking down supply chain silos to realize more savings

The supply chain paradox in healthcare can be described as: “We know the savings are in our data, but our data lives everywhere.” It’s a common narrative as procurement information is scattered across ERPs, SaaS, exchanges, GPO portals, and across many departments. Individually, these functions might be working, but the reality is that they can create data silos that make it hard to see true actual demand, prices, and outcomes that can be suboptimal for patients and providers.

The silos can generate massive, measurable waste. They show up as duplicate orders, missed contract opportunities, or inconsistent product quality. Worse, they demand extra manual work - reconciling invoices or getting approvals - pulling staff away from higher-value work, an especially pressing issue given today’s workforce shortages.

Beyond the healthcare organization’s walls, silos limit what they can share with suppliers and partners. This forces even good partners to guess pricing, fulfillment and future demand. It’s no surprise that industry analysts estimate hospitals lose tens of billions of dollars each year to unnecessary supply chain spending, underscoring how urgent it is to finally address these gaps.

Building stronger foundations inside the organization

These inefficiencies can be solved by rethinking purchasing practices and connecting the systems and people involved. Healthcare organizations can regain control and begin capturing the savings that have been hiding in plain sight.

The path forward starts with building stronger foundations inside the organization. That means creating shared purchasing policies that balance clinical flexibility with enterprise standards. Clinicians need room to choose what’s right for the patient or setting, while the organization must ensure compliance with formularies, budgets and contracts. Clear, visible guardrails help keep departments coordinated without slowing down care. AI can further reinforce these guardrails by flagging non-compliant purchases in real time, helping teams intervene before small issues become costly ones.

Just as important is investing in visibility through system integration. When ERP and analytics tools communicate with each other, every department can gain access to the same spending data, compliance status, supplier mix and usage patterns. A common source of truth shifts procurement conversations away from guesswork and toward collaboration, creating the foundation for smarter, more coordinated decisions. By layering AI onto this shared data, organizations can uncover hidden spending patterns, predict demand more accurately, and make faster, data-driven decisions that improve both cost and care outcomes. Ultimately, aligning purchasing practices with broader organizational objectives can ensure procurement becomes a driver of both efficiency and quality.

Extending collaboration to external partners

Beyond internal alignment, looping in external partners can also yield benefits. Many organizations send periodic spend files to partners, which are useful. But a steady, automated stream of purchasing activity across categories is far more powerful. With regular, aggregated data, partners can spot trends, forecast more accurately and ensure fulfillment readiness. Sharing data consistently requires trust, but that transparency is what enables stronger, more strategic relationships with partners, paving the way for deeper savings and more reliable supply.

Reducing silos

At Amazon Business, our focus is on helping healthcare organizations reduce silos and unlock efficiencies. We bring vendor, categories and buyers together in one place, while integrating with existing e-procurement systems. Embedding Amazon Business into these workflows gives organizations compliance controls and a single source of truth for purchasing. For example, Amazon Business Analytics Spend Visibility, a Business Prime exclusive feature, taps into the AI expertise of AWS-powered tools, providing out-of-the-box and customizable dashboards that improve visibility into spend. For larger health systems, we also support strategic sourcing partnerships, aligning near-term needs with long-term goals around resilience and scalability. Across all customers, our aim is the same: to create transparency, preserve flexibility and co-develop solutions that improve cost, quality and overall experience.

Healthcare is moving toward supply chains that are more resilient, agile and data-driven. Breaking down silos is a critical step in that journey. With shared policies, integrated systems and steady flows of actionable data—both internally and with partners—organizations can reduce waste, leverage volume and respond more quickly to changing conditions. That’s how we not only protect margins today but also support better patient care tomorrow.

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Shivani Goswami is the Head of Strategy & Solutions Development for Amazon Business, Healthcare. She leverages over 11 years of healthcare and procurement experience to design scalable solutions, guide digital transformation, and help organizations unlock value through data, automation and strategic alignment. She also co-founded Health Connect South, a regional platform for healthcare innovation and collaboration.